The Brookhaven leader., 1887-07-14

porCon OF his congregation made their
annual pilgrimage on the I'd inst, to
msrtha's Vineyard, Mass, aud on the
osooath dr. Talmage preached to them
ana thousands Of others in the great
Cap 'p-meeting tabernacle His text was:
Through a window, in a basket, was let
down by the walL--H Cor. XII, IS.
He said: Sermons on Paul in Jail, Paul
on Mars Hill, Paul in the shipwreck, Paul
before the Sanhedrim, Paul before Felix
are plentiful, but in my text we have
Paul In a basket.
Damascus is a city Of white and glisten-
ing architecture, sometimes called the
''eye of the East" sometimes called "a
pearl surrounded by emeralds,n at one
time distinguished for swords Of the best
material known as Damascus blades, and
upholstery of richest fabrics called dam
asks. A horseman by the name of Saul,
riding toward the city, had been thrown
from the saddle. The horse had dropped
under fash from the sky, which at the
same time was so bright it blind.
ed the rider for many days,
and, think, so permanently in
1ured his eyesight that this defect
of vision became the thorn In the flesh
he afterwards speaks Of. he started for
Damascus to butcher Christians, but
a changed man and preached Christ in
Damascus till the city was shaken to its
foundation.
The mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry is: xiii himI
kill himI'
The city is surrounded by high wall,
and the gates are watched by the police
lest the Clcillian preacher escape. Many
OF the houses are built on the wall, and
their balconies projected clear over and
lowered above the gardens outside, 1t
was customary to lower baskets out of
these balconies and pull up fruits and flow
ers from the gardens. To this day visitors
at the monastery of Mount Sinai are lifted
and let down in baskets. Detectives
prowled around from house to house look
Ing for Paul, but his friends hid him,
now in one place, now in another. He is
no coward, as fifty incidents in his life
demonstrate But he feels his work is
not done yet, and so he evades as sassina.
ton.
SIS that preacher herel" the foaming
mob shout at one house door. is that
fanatic herer' the police shout at another
house door.
Sometimes on the street incognito he
passes through a crowd of clinched fists,
and sometimes he seCretes himself on the
house.top. At last the infatuated popu-
lace get on sure track of him. They have
positive evidence that he is in the house
OF one Of the Christians, the balcony of
whose home reaches over the wall.
"Here he is ! Here he is ~
The vociferation, and bias phemy, and
bowling of the pursuers are at the Igort
door. They break in. =
Fetch out that GosnGlizer and let us
hang his head on TIE city gate. Where is
he2n
The emergency was terrible. Provi-
uentlaily there was Il good stout basket
In the house. Paups friends fusten rope
TO the BASKET. Paul steps into it. The
basket is lifted t. the ed re of the balcony
on the wall, and then. while Paul holds
on to the rope with both hands, his
friends lower away carefully and eau
tiously, slowly but surely, further down
and futher down, until the basket strikes
the earth and the apostle steps out and
afoot and alone, starts on that famous
missionary tour, the story of which has
astonisbSd earth aud Heaven. Appro-
pirate entry in Paurs diary of travels:
Through q window, in a basket, was I let
down by the wall.
Observe, first on what a slend er tenure
twisted that cord fastened to that lower
ing basket never knew how much would
depend upon the strength of it, How if
1t had been broken and the apostles life
had been das he'd out2 What would have
become of the Christian Churchi All
that magnificent missionary work in
Famphllla, Cappadocia, Galatia, Mace
donna, would never have been accom-
plished. All his writings, that make up
80 indispensable and enchanting a part of
the New Testament. The story of the
resurrection would never have been so
gloricuslv told as he told it. That example
OF heroic and triumphant endurance
at Philippi, in the Mediterranean Euro
clydon, under 1lagel alton and at his be-
heading, would not have kindled the cour-
age of 1000 martyrdoms, But that rope,
holding that basket, how much depended
on It'll So, again and again, greater re-
suits have hung on what seemed slender
circumstances.
Did ever ship Of many thousand tons,
crossing the sea, have such an impor tant
passenger as had once a boat of leav es;
from taffrail to stern only three or four
feet, the vessel made waterproof by coat
of bitumen, and floating on the Nile with
the infant law-giver of the Jews on boardl
What if some crocodile should crunch ltl
What if some of the cattle wading in for
a drink should sink itl Vessels of war
sometimes carry forty guns, looking
through the portfolios, ready to open
battle. But that tiny Draft on the Nile
seems to be armed with all the guns of
thunder that oombarded Sinai at the law
giving. On how fragile a craft sailed,
bow much of historical importan ce!
The parsonage at Epworth, England, is
on fire In the night, and the father rushed
through the hallway for the rescue of his
children. Seven children are out and safe
on the ground, but one remains IN the
consuming building. That one wakes,
and finding his bed on fire and the build
ing crumbling, comes to the window, and
two peasants make a ladder of their
bodies, one peasant standing on the
shoulders of the other, and down the hu.
man lad der the boy descends-John Wes-
lev.
If you would know how much depended
on the ladder of peasants ask the millions
of MethodIsts on both sides of the sea.
Ask their mission stations all round the
world. Ask their hundreds of thousands
already assembled to join their founder,
who would have persisted but for the liv-
ing stairs of peasants shoulders.
An English ship stopped at Pitcairn
Island, and right in the midst of surround
ing cannibalsm and squalor the passen-
gers discovered a Christian colony Of
churches and schools and beautiful
homes, and the highest style of religion
and civilization. For fifty years no mis-
sionary and no Christian influ ence had
landed there. Why this oasis of light